Foreign educated nurses’ work experiences and patient safety—A systematic review of qualitative studies

AIM: The aim of this systematic review was to identify the evidence contributed by qualitative research studies of foreign educated nurses’ work experiences in a new country and to link the results to patient safety competencies. DESIGN: A systematic literature review of qualitative studies. METHODS: Electronic searches in the Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and Cinahl databases and additional manual searches in five scientific journals. A content analysis of 17 qualitative articles was conducted. RESULTS: The analysis revealed one main theme: “Being an outsider at work” and two themes: “Cultural dissonance and Unfamiliar nursing practice. Two sub‐themes emerged from the first theme; Loneliness and discrimination” and “Communication barriers”. The second theme was based on the following two sub‐themes: “Handling work‐related stress” and “Role uncertainty and difficulties in decision‐making”. A better prepared and longer orientation period with continual clinical supervision including systematic reflection on practice experiences is needed to support foreign educated nurses in the transition period and strengthen their Patient Safety Competencies. Nurse Managers have an important role in ensuring the inclusion of foreign educated nurses and providing desirable working conditions.